Ensuring the City Rail Link is no “boondoggle”
There is a lot of poorly informed criticism of public transport out there. While this is frustrating, it has its advantages in that most people who critique PT – and rail especially – can have their arguments easily rebutted and dismissed.…
75 Comments Bringing the BAM to Auckland?
My last post explored the merits of BAM. For those who missed it, a BAM (bus tram) attempts to combine the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of buses with a ride-quality that is normally associated with light rail. The BAMs key attributes include: electrical motor, advanced guidance systems, and high vehicle capacity.…
Blowing the motorways budget
Yesterday I received from NZTA all the board papers from their May meeting. There are probably a few posts to put together over the next while that share information from those papers, but one that stood out as particularly interesting was an update on how actual transport spending is tracking against expectations laid out in the 2009-2012 National Land Transport Programme.…
The Wellesley Street corridor
One interesting part of the Central Flagship bus changes that were finalised earlier this week is the use of Wellesley Street as a major crosstown bus route corridor in the city centre. The “Outer Link” route will use Wellesley Street to get across the city, between Victoria Park in the west and the University in the east.…
NZTA struggling to pay the bills?
There was an interesting media release from NZTA a couple of days ago, in relation to their decision to delay moving ahead with a reconfiguration of a major bottleneck in Warkworth – the Hill Street intersection. Somewhat unsurprisingly, NZTA have made the decision to delay this project – presumably because they’re working on advancing the Warkworth bypass section of the holiday highway and it would be pretty crazy to continue to spend tens of millions of dollars on upgrading the existing road when you’re going to bypass it soon.…
The big BAM theory
Welcome back and thanks to everyone who commented on yesterday’s post, which tried to highlight some ‘inconvenient truths’ about light rail (LRT). In today’s post I will try to synthesize and respond to those comments, before moving on to what I think are greener pastures. …
What does Wellington’s rail package mean for Auckland?
On Tuesday a quite important rail funding package for Wellington was confirmed by the government. This was originally announced a few months ago, and somewhat came out of the blue. Here are the details:
The package includes Government funding of $88.4 million to renew the rest of the signalling and traction assets on the network.…
Inconvenient truths about light rail in Auckland
So, after circling in my head for about seven years it’s finally time to let this pigeon fly.
Before we begin, I just want highlight that this is a two-part post: Today I highlight some inconvenient truths about light rail before tomorrow responding to comments.…
Business advisory panel wants CRL in six years
It seems that the business community is really starting to swing in behind supporting the City Rail Link project. Perhaps they’ve read the business case and its supporting information, and are starting to comprehend the potential benefits the project will bring.…
Central bus changes finalised
Auckland Transport have today released the final version of the bus changes to many central buses that was consulted on a few months back. Here’s the final version (click here for a PDF version): Below we have the original version that was put out for consultation: There seem to be a number of changes: The Link and the Outer Loop (called the Inner and Outer Link in the new system respectively) have swapped their path through the northern part of the city centre.…
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